The third Battle of Ypres, also known as the battle of Passchendaele, started on July 31, 1917, and over the following three months at least half a million men were killed.

They were killed not only by the fighting, the topography of the land in Flanders near the French border meant that shelling and rain turned the battlefield into a sea of mud - often as deep as 10 feet.

Royal British Legion Cheltenham branch parade 17 standards into Cheltenham Minster commemorating the Centenary of the start of the Battle of Passchendaele. Photo by Andrew Higgins 30/07/2017

It is thought that up to a quarter of British casualties actually drowned in the all-encompassing mud.

At Cheltenham Minster at St Mary’s Church, deputy Mayor Councillor Bernie Fisher entered the church through a guard of 17 standards from the Royal British legion, other service organisations and the Salvation Army at the door before the service.

The service at Cheltenham Minster

Taken by the Reverend Paul Youde, the Gloucestershire chaplain to the Royal British Legion, the service featured the hymns All My Hope on God is Founded, I Vow to Thee my Country and Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer as well as the national anthem.

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Roy Robert, chairman of Cheltenham’s Royal British Legion, gave a brief history of the appalling battle and its appalling loss of life. He gave details of three soldiers from Cheltenham who were killed there: Private Arthur Phillips, who was killed aged 33 on its first day. Private Arthur Bloxsome who was killed aged 26 on 27 August 1917 and Lieutenant Donald bailey killed aged 23 on October 4.

The first two soldiers have no known grave.

A stretcher-bearing party carrying a wounded soldier through the mud near Boesinghe during the battle of Passchendaele in Flanders. (Photo by John Warwick Brooke/Getty Images)

Borough Councillors Chris Nelson, wearing the tie of the Royal Artillery and Tim Harman were also present, along with former councillors Barbara Driver and John Rawson.

The service at Cheltenham Minster

Councillor Harman said: “I’m here because my grandfather Ruben Harman was at the battle. I never knew him but he survived it and the entire war, fortunately.”